Euro MP Peter Skinner is calling for a national and regional economic growth plan as UK unemployment hits record levels and starts to rise again in the South East.

UK economic growth in the last 9 months - Cuts are not delivering growth or jobs

It was announced yesterday that UK unemployment is up 80,000 and has hit 2.51million – the highest level for Read the rest of this article »

As a senior member of both the European Parliament’s ECON committee and the Delegation for Relations with the United States, I take a very close interest in the issue of convergence of regulation between the EU and US, particularly in the area of financial services.

My office has conducted an audit of the differences that have emerged in 12 critical areas, details available here: http://www.bertelsmann-stiftung.de/cps/rde/xbcr/SID-83ABC83D-68279FF2/bst_engl/xcms_bst_dms_32455_32456_2.pdf

Going forward, I am committed to trying to achieve greater transtlantic convergence, which will result in improved oversight of providers of financial services, less opportunity for regulatory arbitrage, and ultimately reduced costs for consumers as barriers to competition are reduced.

On the 2nd of February I was very happy to meet representatives from the Unite trade union, of which I am a member. Among their number was Derek Simpson (pictured), General Secretary of the union, and several high level representatives.

Addressing a meeting of the European Parliamentary Labour Party, Simpson and his colleagues thanked the Labour MEPs for their hard work on a number of key workers’ rights issues, and raised a number of key issues which they asked for support from the MEPs going forward.

One was related to rulings by the European Court of Justice on the Posting of Workers Directive, which lays down minimum standards on issues such as pay rates, holidays, working hours, health and safety and gender equality for workers posted abroad. Unite argues that the court rulings give clear precedence to freedom for business in the EU over fundamental collective and trade union rights, and that the rulings need to be re-examined.
Also discussed was the shocking killings of trade unionists in Colombia and the pressure that the EU could bring to bear through free trade agreements with the South American country, and issues relating to forthcoming legislation on derivatives and how that could affect UK industry.

It was a very interesting meeting and I am exceedingly happy to know that Unite is continuing to fight the good fight. They have my full support.